30 years ago today

Fakeem said:

Why do so many people dislike learning from the past. Not doing so is part of what is wrong with this society.

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That's a question you need to ask society. But it's not radio's job to force a history lesson on its listeners. People just want to be entertained.

DavidEduardo said:

What you played 30 years ago may have all burnt to a crisp by now, and in any case, appeals mostly to an audience that is three decades older than today's target. The 25-54 crowd of 30 years ago is now 55 to 84.



Yes, among people in their 60's and 70's. Stations don't stay true to their music; they stay true to the target age group.



One, research is a snapshot. A picture of people's tastes at a given moment for a particular age group. 30 years later, we don't care what that age group wants to hear. They may or may not still like those 50's and 60's songs, but we are not gonna' play 'em because we can't sell a dime's worth of advertising if our average listener age is way over 55.



Specialty shows are an excuse to play off the playlist, but once and only once on a holiday weekend when radio listening plummets in PPM markets. It's novelty value, and we know that such songs played regularly will do nothing but create tune-out.

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First, no one listens to radio 24 hours a day, so their will always be tune-out. You guys are missing my point.

Maybe I missed it, and maybe my strokes have caused me to forget it, but where did I write to switch the format? It's about an oldie station looking back at it's own history. Jeez, doing something once is not the same as a full fledged switch.....If all you want is 25-54, stick with current music and sprinkle in classics.

Now, I see where the problem is, you guys are looking at the old end of their playlist from 30 years ago, I meant the songs that were popular 30 years ago [1987], not 40, 50 or 60. I should have made that clearer.

Ah, that is different. But how is it different from what they’re doing now? Or with the stunts they already periodically that play off the existing format? Sure, they could do another one but when does stunt become needless overkill?

I don’t have any exact data, but to my ears it sounds like the middle of the playlist is about smack dab in the 30-40 year old range.

AbrahamJSimpson said:

It’s a rather large leap to move from learning about history to suggesting a radio stunt is a bad business idea. Not all stunts are good.WOGL made plenty of noise about being 30, so they acknowledged the history, but unearthing the 50s and early 60s music again as a “comparison” even for a few days would have been counterproductive.

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Where did I ever say unearth songs from the 50's and 60's? Once again, I didn't make myself clear. I was talking about the playing of the 80's tunes that weren't as popular then as now or have become hits and were not hits then, as a stunt. Maybe they do that, and I just haven't heard it, since I lost interest in OTA radio after my strokes. A recent Family Guy episode played what sounded like a remake of Pac-Man Fever. Now I doubt they would play it now, but as part of a stunt weekend or show, It could be cute. If their listeners choose to never listen to WOGL ever again, over the playing of one song during a stunt, they aren't needed as a listener. Supposedly WOGL played Debby Boone this year... Listeners need to learn to use the dial or presets for a few minutes.

AbrahamJSimpson said:

Ah, that is different. But how is it different from what they’re doing now? Or with the stunts they already periodically that play off the existing format? Sure, they could do another one but when does stunt become needless overkill?

I don’t have any exact data, but to my ears it sounds like the middle of the playlist is about smack dab in the 30-40 year old range.

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I actually don't know. The few times I've turned on OTA [WOGL/WDAS-FM/WRNB] for music, since the passing of Prince, I haven't heard anything as enjoyable, and this is coming from lifelong fan of various forms of music. At this point, WOGL should be as pleasurable to my ears as it was before 2015, but I happen to be unlucky enough to catch songs I didn't like and happen to hear them still being played when I turn on a radio.

By the way, I just noticed your handle. Is that your real name or just a "The Simpsons" reference?

Fakeem said:

I actually don't know. The few times I've turned on OTA [WOGL/WDAS-FM/WRNB] for music, since the passing of Prince, I haven't heard anything as enjoyable, and this is coming from lifelong fan of various forms of music. At this point, WOGL should be as pleasurable to my ears as it was before 2015, but I happen to be unlucky enough to catch songs I didn't like and happen to hear them still being played when I turn on a radio.

By the way, I just noticed your handle. Is that your real name or just a "The Simpsons" reference?

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It would be amusing to be a real name, but just a reference.

The thing about presets—everyone knows listeners by and large know how to use them. What you don’t want to do is give said listeners a reason to do so very often if you want to sell them to the people who actually pay the bills.

Random odd question (because I'm that trivial)...

What was the last song on Hot Hits and the first on OGL?

ksradiogeek said:

Random odd question (because I'm that trivial)...

What was the last song on Hot Hits and the first on OGL?

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I think it was another one bites the dust by Queen as the last song on Hot Hits and the first song under the current format was Little Richard - Good Golly, Miss Molly. The played a clip of the format change during the Q-102 hot hits reunion back in the late 90s.